(Panama) The United States will begin “in the coming weeks” the repatriation of migrants crossing the Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama, following an agreement with the new Panamanian president José Raul Mulino, they announced Tuesday.
“There will be repatriations in the coming weeks,” Eric Jacobstein, deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said in a telephone news conference.
On Monday, after the inauguration of its new right-wing president, José Raul Mulino, Panama reached an agreement with Washington for the United States to finance these repatriations. The American contribution will be six million dollars.
In his inauguration speech the same day, Mr. Mulino pledged to no longer allow his country to be a “transit” route for migrants crossing the Darien jungle, the natural border between Panama and Colombia.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 200,000 people, the vast majority Venezuelans, have crossed this inhospitable region where criminal gangs extort or rob them. Many have fallen victim to violence and many have died.
Mr Mulino, 65, said he found the number of people seeking exile “shocking” and that he intended to seek solutions with “the countries concerned, in particular the United States, which is the final destination of the migrants”.